Robert E. Lang

Robert Lang is a nationally recognized authority on urban growth, economic development and population dynamics, including the interplay between politics and growth in the American West. Lang is often called on by national business leaders and media to provide an understanding of economic recovery in the west (including Nevada), what elements led to the region’s economic decline, and what it will take to bring it back.

He has authored over 150 academic and professional publications and has developed many new urban planning concepts such as "Boomburbs," "Edgeless Cities," and "Megapolitan Areas." His new book, Megapolitan America (American Planning Association), details the rise of megapolitan areas and how they will change how American plans. He is also a contributor the book America's New Swing Region (Brookings Institution Press), which examines the profound economic, political, and social changes that continue to reshape the Mountain West. Lang's research has been featured in numerous media outlets, including USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, MSNBC and FOX News.

Lang is a professor in the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and serves as the executive director of Brookings Mountain West and The Lincy Institute at UNLV. He is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a fellow of the Urban Land Institute, both in Washington, D.C. Lang earned a Ph.D. in urban sociology from Rutgers University.

Robert Lang is a nationally recognized authority on urban growth, economic development and population dynamics, including the interplay between politics and growth in the American West. Lang is often called on by national business leaders and media to provide an understanding of economic recovery in the west (including Nevada), what elements led to the region’s economic decline, and what it will take to bring it back.

He has authored over 150 academic and professional publications and has developed many new urban planning concepts such as “Boomburbs,” “Edgeless Cities,” and “Megapolitan Areas.” His new book, Megapolitan America (American Planning Association), details the rise of megapolitan areas and how they will change how American plans. He is also a contributor the book America’s New Swing Region (Brookings Institution Press), which examines the profound economic, political, and social changes that continue to reshape the Mountain West. Lang’s research has been featured in numerous media outlets, including USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, MSNBC and FOX News.

Lang is a professor in the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and serves as the executive director of Brookings Mountain West and The Lincy Institute at UNLV. He is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a fellow of the Urban Land Institute, both in Washington, D.C. Lang earned a Ph.D. in urban sociology from Rutgers University.

Well, you know, everybody thinks, well, I'm doing everything right. The region is booming. The houses are selling. The jobs are growing. And, in fact, what happens is that if you grow in just one way, let's say tourism, and then you face a contraction in tourism, then you pay a bigger price than you would if you had more broadly grown or you'd grown at a slower rate and had a sense of ... having to hustle a bit for those jobs.